Time to Move On

Well the time has come to move on with this truck. After a lot of thought, and some sleepless nights, I have decided to sell Engine 1. Engine 1 unfortunately requires more time to tinker than I currently have available in my life. With needing new floor boards, body work, and never-ending engine issues that I can't seem to tack down, I really need to move on.

I fortunately have had an opportunity present itself in regards to owning a different truck. This truck is a 1975 International Fleetstar 2010 that used to actually serve the Town of Candia from 1975 until 2000, originally as Engine 1 and retiring at Engine 4. I found the truck on Craigslist two years ago in Maine for sale at a price of $5000. With all that was going on with the '62 having a bad engine, and the amount of work the new truck would require, I decided that it was not appropriate time to buy the truck.

Funny story is that I was in Maine with my girlfriend driving down Route 1 from Old Orchard Beach when we came to an intersection in Biddeford, ME. I happened to recognize the intersection from my first trip to Maine to look at E-4 two years ago (much to the surprise of my girlfriend, who thought I was crazy.) I took a gamble and took the left down the road where I last saw E-4, and to my surprise she was still there sitting in the driveway, almost like it never moved. She still looked about the same and it was a raw day so she was wet, but Paul, the current owner (until Saturday), remembered me and let me take a look at her. After a little questioning, he said the old girl was still for sale, and at a much lower price of $3000. Paul said he had a guy from a school in Vermont look at it last week because the school wanted a working fire truck for their student FD. Good idea, but I knew that if I wanted E-4 back to Candia, where it belonged, I had to act fast.

The last three days have been a grueling back and forth to the bank to secure the financing for the purchase. Happily I was approved this morning for an unsecured personal loan for $3000. Called Paul, the truck was still for sale, and now we wait until Saturday when I can pay, unless I can go up Friday evening and do it.

Now I had already decided to sell the '62 prior to finding E-4, so the decision to sell was not influenced by my find. But I have placed the '62 on Ebay with a reserve auction price of $3000. I really don't want to take less than that, I paid $2800 for her in 2006 and put at least $1000 in parts, labor and work into her over the last four years, but cash talks. Hopefully she will sell in the next few weeks so I can pay the bank off....(I think I might take the money and pay off my car though, the new truck loan payments are significantly less than my current car payment.)

Two years ago when I went up and looked at the truck my friend Jimmy from the FD (who has been there for 15 years and used to drive E-4 when it was in service) we took it for a spin around the neighborhood. He was pleased, and said that the truck drives like it did when it was in service. She hasn't been on the road for two years though as Paul said it was about $200/year to register her in Maine as an antique. He said he couldn't justify paying the money for the truck registration when he really didn't use it much. He did say that he goes and starts it once a week, lets it run, and moves it around his yard. I will make sure she starts, idles nicely, and moves before we sign the paperwork.

So after it's paid for it will have to remain in Maine for a few more days. I need to come back to NH, wait till Monday when I can go to the DMV, pay the $10 for a temp registration, pay for the insurance policy ($160 for 6 months, which isn't bad). Monday or Tuesday night, depending on how things go, I will be going back up to Maine with Dad, Katherin, and maybe Jeff an/or Mellisa, to drive her back to NH. Yes, I will be driving her back home.....I know, it may be a risk, but there is risk in everything you do. Heck, the car may die on the way up there, who knows. I am confident that E-4 will make it back to NH without a problem. She only has 13,000 miles on the odometer, and for an International, she isn't even broken in!

Now I have to learn how to drive a five speed with a two speed rear end! Seen a few videos on youtube and it doesn't look hard at all...just a little different.

Katherin was really the driving force behind buying E-4. She never really liked E-1 because of all the problems it's had, and because I owned it before she met me. Now she said E-4 is "our" truck. I look forward to working on it with her, instead of her watching me work on E-1. She is as excited as I am, and hopefully I can get her behind the wheel driving it someday..........

Hopefully my plan works out! If anyone is interested in purchasing E-1, please let me know.

Made it to Manchester.......

Sorry for the delay in posting! I'm now in paramedic school which has been eating up a large amount of my time over the last few months.

However, I did find time to get E-1 to Manchester in October for the Manchester Fire Prevention Parade (yes, the same parade I was trying to go to in 2007 when the engine blew!). Yes, we made it there, and through the parade. She was a little hard to start that morning, and she was skipping a lot, but I thought it was just some water in the gas giving me trouble. We got some dry gas on the way to the parade line-up, but that didn't seem to solve the problem at all. We got through the parade with a few backfires (which scared the crap out of me a everyone else) and parked in the parking lot at the end of the parade. But that's where it stayed, because we could not get the truck to stay running for the ride home. Ended up having the truck towed home to Raymond, and while trying to diagnose the issue and get the truck running to move it for storage, I fried the starter. So now I have to pull that out, then tow the truck with my ATV or Jeep to the storage spot on the other side of the house.

I've not got my issue narrowed down to a timing one. It was skipping, running rough, and hard to start. The truck would not even fire on ether. The gas was good (over half a tank of new gas that morning). So right now I'm going to be shopping for a new condenser, points set, and plug wires to get that set. If that's not the issue, then it's to the carburetor, but it was professionally rebuilt five years ago so I don't see how that could be the issue.

So we'll see....for the winter, it's parked, and hopefully in spring we will be up and running yet again.

Now to the pictures from Manchester.


Milford Truck


MFD Engine 6


Old MFD Ahrens-Fox 1924


MFD E-10, a 1949 Mack, which Hose 4 used to run with at Weston Street


E-10 again. Such a pretty truck


and now for a parting image from parade season 2009


Two Old Friends Meet Again MFD Engine 10 and MFD Hose 4



I will mention, that after seeing E-10 all dressed up in the Manchester style, I have decided that when I do my restore on the truck, it will be restored to it's original Manchester looks from several of the older pictures I have. I would like it to look much like E-10 and E-6 look in the pictures above! Sometime in the future!

Late Updates from July

Hi Folks-

Here are a few pictures from the Raymond, NH Fireman's Parade and the Amoskeag Reserve Engine Company muster in Bow, NH, both in July!




































The first picture is the only good one from the Fireman's Parade...the rest are form the AREC Muster in Bow.....one of the few times Engine 1 has had water pumped through her pipes!

FYI-The second picture in this set is a rear-shot of Manchester Engine 10, the actual, physical truck that Engine 1 served as a hose tender for back in the Weston Street Station days. Pretty cool that two old friends got to meet.

Our next, and final as of now, parade this year will be the MFD Fire Prevention Parade on Sunday, October 4th. I'm trying to arrange to have Engine 1 ride behind the old Engine 10 that was pictured above, as long as it's in the parade.....it wasn't running at the muster but I hope it will be by then.

Hope to see some of you in Manchester, and don't be afraid to say hello!

Josh

Additional Stuff We're Doing with Engine 1 This Summer:

Here's a few more places we're going this summer:


--2009 Amoskeag Reserve Engine Company Muster, Bow, NH 10am-2pm.

--Sandown, NH Parade, August 8th, 12pm

2009 Raymond 4th of July Parade

Here are some pictures and video from the parade!

Video shot from just behind the cab, ala Naked Gun Title Sequence style:

Pictures of E-1 and some of the other trucks/vehicles in the parade! (Clicky to Photobucket!)

Next Parade:

July 10th, Raymond Town Fair @ 7pm, Town Common!

Today's Activites

Today was the nicest day we've had in a VERY long time. So that means we got some stuff done for once! The truck actually looks better than it has in a looooong time. Here's what we did today:

• Wash and wax job this morning.
• Vacuumed cab
• Fixed electronic siren
• Fueled up
• Repainted ALL the running boards and both bumpers with aluminum paint. Nice and shiny now, like new!
• Took the grille off and repainted it, so it's now silver, not rusty.
• Repainted the driver's side "INTERNATIONAL" and "BC160" badges.

So we should be all ready to go for tomorrow! Hope to see some of you at the parade, too!

Revving up for Saturday!

We've been having the WORST June weather-wise that I can remember!! All it's done is rain, rain, rain every day off I've had for the last two weeks, making it all but impossible to work on the truck! I still have a few items I need to take care of before Friday night:

-Install the new bolts on the front cowling!
-Still need to change BOTH fuel filters!
-Still needs a tank of gas!
-Still needs a full wash, wax, and vacuum!
-Still needs to have the front-mount pump and the generator reinstalled!
-Electronic Federal Siren needs to be remounted in the cab!
-Driver's side red flasher needs to be tightened a little bit, it turns while you drive!

I've still got a lot of crap to do and so little time. Thankfully it's supposed to be nice on Thursday and Friday this week so I should be able to bang out most of this stuff in a few hours. We're going for the wash and wax on Friday, and then we'll put the portable stuff back on.

On a good note, I've had the time to redo the history binder that goes to the parades with the truck for people who are interested to know about Engine 1. So at least that's done. I still have to charge up the video camera and figure out how I'm going to mount that thing on the back deck for the parade.... shouldn't be to hard if I can do it correctly.

On Saturday morning, we should be at Dunkin' Donuts in Freetown road around 8am, then at the parade for 8:30 or so for flag mounting, a quick once over with some towels and cleaner, and judging (not that I expect Engine 1 in it's current state to win anything. Keith Rollins from Deerfield and his 1940's[?] Ford Firetruck usually takes the awards!)

Hope to see everyone at the Raymond 4th of July Parade!